KR20160108452A - Methods and systems for detecting a closure of a navigable element - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for detecting the closure of navigable elements that form part of a road network of navigable elements within a geographic area is disclosed. The server obtains position data related to movement of a plurality of devices along the navigable element with respect to time. Wherein the position data is used to determine the elapsed time since one device was last detected on the navigable element and the determined elapsed time is the estimated time between consecutive devices detected on the navigable element Is compared with the interval. The navigable element is identified as potentially closed according to one or more option validation steps when the determined elapsed time exceeds the expected time interval, e.g., by a predetermined amount.

Description

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR DETECTING CLOSURE OF ARBITABLE ELEMENTS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION < RTI ID = 0.0 > [0002] <

The present invention is directed to a method and system for detecting the occlusion of an navigable element, e.g., a road element, in an navigatable road network of navigable elements.

It is important in a navigation system to obtain information about navigable elements of the road network, e.g., road closures. The presence of road closures has a significant impact on route routing through the road network. Road closures can be likened to traffic congestion associated with "infinite delays" so that alternate route choices should be determined to avoid such affected road element (s). Knowing the presence of road closures is important to road users, even if road users do not follow pre-calculated routes. For example, if the user is following a familiar route, this is still useful for the user to recognize if there is a road closure that affects the route so that the user can determine an alternate route whether with or without the help of a navigation system .

The road closure information may be provided to the user, for example along with other driving and traffic information during navigation along a route through a navigation device in the vehicle, such as a handheld device (PND) or an integrated device, or may be provided to an advanced driver assistance system ; ADAS) < / RTI > Road closure information can also be used to recalculate the fastest route during the journey, for example, for route selection schemes by navigation or ADAS devices, before starting the itinerary, or when the conditions change during traversing along the fastest route during the itinerary have.

Road closure is typically a dynamic event that has a temporary effect on the road and therefore acquires information related to road closures in terms of a "live" system, i.e. a " .

Conventional systems for obtaining information about road closures typically rely on data obtained from third parties. For example, such data may be included in "Traffic Message Channel" (TMC) messages, or other similar third party messages that may be broadcast over an FM network. Such information can be based on data obtained from sources such as police reports, or road agencies / managers. However, there are several problems in relying on third party data related to road closures, since the data is not always accurate and may not be the latest version.

Applicants have discovered that there remains room for improvement in methods and systems for obtaining information related to the closure of navigable elements, e.g., for provisioning to users and / or navigation or ADAS devices.

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of detecting the closure of navigable elements forming part of a road network of navigable elements within a geographic area,

The method comprises:

Obtaining positional data related to movement of a plurality of devices along an navigable element with respect to time;

Determining a time that has elapsed since one of the devices was last detected on the navigable element using the position data;

Comparing the determined elapsed time with an expected time interval between consecutive devices detected on the navigable element; And

Identifying the navigable element as potentially closed when the determined elapsed time exceeds the expected time interval;

.

Thus, in accordance with the present invention, location data ("probe data") relating to the movement of devices relative to time is determined by determining a set of one And is obtained for each of the above navigable elements. The position data is used to determine the elapsed time after one device has been last detected in the navigable element for each navigable element. If the elapsed time exceeds the expected time interval between consecutive devices detected in the navigable element, then the navigable element is identified as potentially closed.

Some prior art techniques have attempted to identify navigable elements that are closed with reference to the absence of probe data indicating movement of devices along the navigable elements. However, these techniques tend to result in a large number of false positives. By comparing the time elapsed since the previous probe device passed along the navigable element with the expected time interval between devices passing along the navigable element, It is possible to determine with greater certainty that the time elapsed since passing through is potentially long enough to allow the conclusion that the time has been potentially closed. Such a comparison step allows such factors to be identified if the difference between the time elapsed since the last visit by one device and the expected interval between visits is large enough to represent a potential closure of the element.

The invention extends to a system for implementing a method according to any of the embodiments of the invention described herein.

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for detecting closure of navigable elements forming part of a road network of navigable elements within a geographic area,

The system comprises:

Means for obtaining position data related to movement of a plurality of devices along an navigable element with respect to time;

Means for determining a time that has elapsed since one of the devices was last detected on the navigable element using the position data;

Means for comparing the determined elapsed time with an expected time interval between consecutive devices detected on the navigable element; And

Means for identifying the navigable element as potentially closed when the determined elapsed time exceeds the expected time interval;

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As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, any feature described with reference to the first embodiment of the present invention may be similarly applied to embodiments according to the second embodiment of the present invention, as opposed to embodiments according to the second embodiment of the present invention Any feature described with reference to the above may be applied to the embodiments according to the first embodiment of the present invention as well.

The present invention is not limited to any of the features described in the first and second embodiments of the present invention to the extent that there is no conflict between the first and second embodiments of the present invention in these additional embodiments, The present invention is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention to any of the features described for the additional embodiments to the extent that there is no conflict between the additional embodiments in the first and second embodiments of the present invention But may include any one or both. Accordingly, unless explicitly stated herein, the system of the present invention may include means for performing any of the steps of the described method.

The means for performing any of the steps of the method may comprise, for example, a set of one or more processors configured to perform any of the steps of the method. The predetermined step may be performed using the same or another set of processors for some other step. Any one predetermined step may be performed using a combination of multiple sets of processors. The system may additionally include data storage means, such as, for example, a computer memory, for storing data indicative of a determined potential closure and / or location data used to determine the presence of closure.

The inventive methods are implemented by the server in the preferred embodiments. Thus, in various embodiments, the system of the present invention includes a server that includes means for performing the various steps described, wherein steps of the method described herein are performed by the server.

The present invention contemplates positional data relating to movement of a plurality of instruments with respect to time along an navigable element to determine whether the navigable element can potentially be closed. The steps of the methods according to the present invention are performed for each of one or more navigable elements of a set of road networks in any of the embodiments of the present invention and are performed for a set of navigable elements desirable. The navigable elements may be at least some navigable elements of navigable elements of the navigable road network. The navigable elements may be any navigable elements available with suitable position data to enable the method to be performed.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the road network of navigable elements, and any navigable element, as referred to herein, are real world or navigable elements of a physically navigable road network. The road network can be represented electronically by digital map data. The digital map may be stored by the server in embodiments in which the method is implemented using the server, or alternatively may be accessible by the server. In the digital map data, the navigable road network is represented by a plurality of navigable segments connected by nodes, wherein the navigable elements of the road network are represented by one or more navigable segments .

The present invention may be implemented for any type of navigable elements. Preferably the navigable elements are (road network) road elements. In some embodiments, the navigable element (s) are elements of a highway, but those skilled in the art will appreciate that any type of road element, or indeed another type of navigable element, Techniques are applicable. While the exemplary embodiments refer to road elements in a road network, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention can be applied to any type of navigable element, including elements such as roads, rivers, canals, bicycle roads, tow paths, You will understand that it is possible. For convenience of reference, they are commonly referred to as road elements of the road network. The present invention is therefore applicable to detecting the closure of any navigable element.

Location data used in accordance with the present invention is location data relating to movement of a plurality of devices along the navigable element or each navigable element over time. The method includes the steps of obtaining location data related to movement of a plurality of devices over time in the road network of navigable elements and filtering the location data to determine whether the predetermined navigable Acquiring location data relating to movement of a plurality of devices along an element or each predetermined navigable element. Wherein acquiring position data related to movement of the navigable element or devices along each navigable element comprises determining whether the navigable element or each navigable element representative of the navigable elements of the road network Can be performed with reference to the digital map data. The method includes the step of matching position data associated with movement of devices in a geographic area including the road network of navigable elements to at least the navigable element or each navigable element considered according to the present invention . ≪ / RTI >

In some arrangements, the step of acquiring the location data may comprise accessing the data, i.e. the data previously received and stored. In the case of "live" location data, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the data can be stored just before it is used, so that the data can still be considered real-time data. In other arrangements, the method may comprise receiving location data from the devices. In embodiments where the step of acquiring the data comprises receiving the data from the devices, the method includes storing the received location data before proceeding to perform the other steps of the present invention, and Optionally, the step of filtering the data is additionally expected to be included. The step of receiving the position data may not be performed at the same time or place as the other steps or steps of the method.

Location data used in accordance with the present invention is collected from one or more, preferably multiple, devices and is related to the movement of the devices over time. Thus, the devices are mobile devices. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, at least some of the location data is associated with temporal data, such as time stamps. However, for purposes of the present invention, not all location data need be associated with temporal data if all location data can be used to provide information related to movement of devices along navigable elements according to the present invention. In preferred embodiments, however, all location data is associated with temporal data, such as time stamps.

The location data is related to the movement of the devices with respect to time and can be used to provide a location "trace" of the road taken by the device. As mentioned above, the data may be received from the device (s) or stored first. The devices may be any mobile devices capable of providing the location data and sufficient associated timing data for purposes of the present invention. The device may be any device having a positioning function. For example, the device may access WiFi access points or cellular communication networks, such as GSM devices, to receive information from WiFi access points or cellular communication networks, such as GSM devices, And a means for determining whether or not the current time is within a predetermined time period. However, in preferred embodiments, the device is configured to receive satellite signals indicative of the receiver position at a particular point in time, preferably global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) such as GPS receivers for receiving updated position information at regular intervals ) Receiver. Such devices may include navigation devices, mobile communication devices having a positioning function, position sensors, and the like.

Preferably the device is associated with a vehicle. In these embodiments, the position of the device corresponds to the position of the vehicle. If not explicitly stated, references to location data obtained from the devices associated with the vehicles may be replaced with references to location data obtained from the vehicle, and references to the movement of the device or devices The reference to the position data obtained from the vehicles associated with the devices may be replaced with a reference to the position data obtained from the device, References may be replaced by reference to the movement of the device or devices. The device may be integrated into the vehicle or may be an individual device associated with the vehicle, such as a portable navigation device. Of course, the position data may be obtained from a combination of different instruments, or from a single type of instrument.

Location data obtained from the plurality of devices is generally known as "probe data ". Data obtained from instruments associated with vehicles may be referred to as vehicle probe data. It should therefore be understood that references to "probe data" herein are interchangeable with the term "position data ", which may be referred to herein as probe data for brevity.

The present invention can provide "live" of closure, i. E. Short-term detection, based on current or near-current data. In the case of real-time location data, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the data can be stored just prior to use so that the data can still be considered to be real-time data.

The method of the present invention may be used to determine the potential closure of the navigable element by determining whether the navigable element that is evaluated for closure or "real-time" position data related to the movement of a plurality of instruments over time along each navigable element And acquiring and using the same. The real-time data can be regarded as data that is relatively current and represents relatively current conditions on each replaceable navigable element. It is typical that the real-time data may be related to conditions on the elements within the last 30 minutes, 15 minutes, 10 minutes, or 5 minutes. By using real-time position data to determine the closure information, it can be assumed that the determined information is currently applicable and may be applicable in the near future, at least in the short term. The use of real-time location data allows accurate and up-to-date versions of closure information to be determined that can be relied upon by road users and / or navigation devices or ADAS. Preferably, the position data used to determine the elapsed time since the device was last detected in the navigable element is real-time position data or real-time position data.

According to the present invention, the method includes analyzing the position data to determine data indicative of the elapsed time since the instrument was last detected on the navigable element. The device is a probe device, that is, a device where positional data relating to the movement of the device over time along the navigable element are available. The device may be any of the types mentioned above and is preferably associated with the vehicle. The device may be a navigation device, and the navigation device may be an integrated device or a PND. The device may be any device capable of providing data indicative of the location of the device with respect to time. Likewise, the expected time interval (as will be discussed in greater detail below) used in embodiments of the present invention is the expected time interval between such probe devices to be detected on the navigable element.

The step of analyzing the position data to determine data indicative of the elapsed time may be performed in any suitable manner. The elapsed time is the time since the device was last detected in the navigable element. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, for example, the processor may be configured to automatically detect the presence of a probe device in the navigable element or elements of the road network and to monitor the elapsed time until the next device is detected in the element. This may be achieved by determining when the device is determined to traverse one or more navigable segments of the digital map representing the navigable element, such as when the device enters, advances, or passes another reference point along the segment . ≪ / RTI > As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the elapsed time determined will be reset when another probe device is detected to traverse one or more navigable segments, i. E., Starting to count again from zero. The elapsed time may be continuously monitored or may be determined intermittently (in a constant or irregular time period). The steps of determining the elapsed time and comparing the elapsed time with an expected time interval between devices may be individual steps. For example, the elapsed time may be monitored and an alert may be generated when the elapsed time exceeds a preset threshold with reference to an expected time interval for the element.

The determined elapsed time is compared to an expected time interval between devices detected on the navigable element. This step may help to reduce the number of false positives detected. The expected time interval may be based on actual detected time intervals between devices on the element and may be obtained using theoretical techniques, or combinations of theoretical techniques. Thus, the interval may be a statistical expectation of a time period in which successive probe instruments traversing the navigable element are expected to be detected, and may be based on intervals between actually detected instruments, May not be based on the inter-spacing. In preferred embodiments, the anticipatory time interval is based on historical location data related to movement of devices along with elements for time, e.g., devices associated with vehicles. In this case, the historical data may be relatively recent, e.g., the historical data may be related to the past one or two days, so that the historical data is still expected to represent an expected interval between probe devices traveling along the element do. However, the expected time interval may be obtained in other manners. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, as the present invention is based on the use of probe data, it is typical that the expected time interval is greater than the expected time interval between actual vehicles, It is not associated with a device that provides data indicative of its location with respect to time so as to be usable as a vehicle. The expected time interval is preferably an average time interval, for example based on a plurality of (detected) time intervals between consecutive pairs of devices passing along the element according to historical location data.

The method may include, for example, storing data indicative of at least one expected time interval between consecutive vehicles detected on the navigable element, in association with digital map data representing the navigable element. The method may be extended to determining the expected time interval or each estimated time interval. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the expected time interval is consequently predetermined, and the method preferably includes recovering the predetermined value from a data storage means, e.g. a memory.

According to the present invention, the applicable estimated time interval is compared with the determined elapsed time. The expected time interval for the navigable elements may be time dependent. Thus, a plurality of expected time intervals between devices passing along the element may be determined for different time periods. The expected time period or each expected time period may be an average time interval. Wherein the average time interval is based on time intervals between a plurality of different continuously detected device sets for a predetermined time period. In some embodiments, a plurality of expected time intervals are associated with at least some of the elements. In this way, when the comparison between the expected time interval and the elapsed time interval is performed, an applicable estimated time interval for the appropriate time interval can be used. For example, the expected time intervals may be possible to be calculated according to the time of year, day of week and / or time of day. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the expected time interval may vary depending on time of day, day of the week, and even during the year. During peak hours, the predicted visit interval is much less than during peak hours, such as night, weekend, or bank holidays. As a result, the provision of multiple expected time intervals is likely to provide a more accurate estimate of the significance of the elapsed time since the last device passed along the element than a single expected time interval for the element .

In some embodiments, one or more replaceable predicted time intervals are based on one or more factors other than a time-dependent change, and an element in the corresponding time periods that allows the selection of the most appropriate interval at any given time It is provided for use together. The choice of alternate intervals for use may be appropriate in certain situations, for example in different weather conditions, or where a particular event such as a football game is being played. Such situations can be regarded as factors other than time-dependent changes. Such situations can be considered unusual.

Some embodiments provide sets of predicted time intervals that are time-based and depend on alternative times that allow selection of the most appropriate predicted time interval based on other factors. For example, it is possible that a set of predicted time intervals depending on one time is used when the weather is dry and a set of predicted time intervals dependent on another time when rain is used.

In any embodiment where more than one expected time interval is available for a particular navigable element, the applicable time interval, i. E., The time interval applicable to the current time and / or conditions, Is used.

In some embodiments, the expected time interval for a particular navigable element is scaled, e.g., based on the current time and / or conditions. For example, in one embodiment, the number of coexisting probe devices for which "real-time" data is currently being received may be used to adjust the expected time interval. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the number of coexisting probe devices typically increases during the peak time periods, and as a result, the expected time interval decreases during these time periods and is not during the peak time periods, such as at night, at weekends and / It is desirable to increase during the holidays. Thus, there is an inverse relationship between the number of coexisting probe devices from which the position data is being received and the value of the expected time interval used in the method.

The method further comprises comparing the estimated time interval and the determined elapsed time between devices for the navigable element or each navigable element and comparing the elapsed time if the elapsed time exceeds the expected interval In the event that the navigable element is greater than a determined amount), identifying the navigable element as potentially closed. This step may be performed in any suitable manner and the elapsed time is used to identify those elements that exceed the expected time interval applicable by a statistically significant amount. The amount that should exceed the applicable expected time interval to regard the elapsed time as significant may be set as needed to reduce the number of positive errors, for example.

The methods of the present invention are implemented by a computer and can provide the ability to automatically detect potentially closed elements. The method may include automatically determining when elapsed time exceeds a predicted interval for a particular element by a significant amount, and automatically identifying that the navigable element is potentially closed. If the navigable element is identified as potentially closed, the method may include automatically generating a message indicating a potentially closed state of the element. The message may trigger additional confirmation steps to be performed (e.g., as will be discussed in more detail below). It is expected that the methods of the present invention can be continuously implemented by servers or servers since real-time location data related to the movement of devices in the navigable-capable road network is received.

What is meant by "potentially closed " as used herein is that the navigable element is considered to be potentially closed at least temporarily. Road closures may be road closures due to road construction.

The navigable element or each navigable element that is identified as potentially closed is a candidate closure element. Preferably, a plurality of navigable candidate elements are identified.

Although it may be ensured that the determined candidate closure element is actually closed without additional confirmation, it is desirable that some additional confirmation be performed to help additively reduce positive errors. Such an acknowledgment may take into account any factor or factors that will affect whether the detected interval between devices passing along the navigable element can be reliably regarded as representing the closure of the element. For example, when the quality of the digital map data representing the element is poor, a relatively long time elapsed since the instrument last passed along the element may be detected. However, this is not the case because of the inaccuracy in the digital map data, which is indicative of the position of the element in comparison with its actual plane position only, as position data relating to the movement of the elements along the element not matched appropriately with the element . In other words, a device that has passed along the navigable element for the elapsed time may not be detected, because the device may match a position that is not on the navigable element. Therefore, it is desirable to consider the error in the digital map representing the navigable element. This can be done with reference to map matching errors associated with position data indicating the presence of a device on one element.

According to any of the embodiments or embodiments of the present invention, the method further comprises determining a position on a segment of the plurality of navigable segments of the digital map representing the road network of navigable elements, And attempting to match the received location data. This process may be referred to as "map matching" and may involve the use of various algorithms as is known in the art. The method may include attempting to match each item of position data with a position along one segment of the navigable segments of the digital map. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, this process is used to associate received navigational data with specific navigable segments of the digital map. In performing the map matching process, a map matching error indicating a difference between the position represented by the position data and the position on the navigable segment where the position data is matched is obtained for each item of position data . In various embodiments, for each of the plurality of devices, the method may include attempting to match each position data point with a position on the navigable segment of the digital map. The map matching error can be determined for each data point. Such map matching errors may occur for a variety of reasons, such as, for example, general noise and / or mapping errors in position data signals, for example in this case the reference line of the navigable element is not exactly georeferenced in the map So that the position of the navigable element represented by the segment of the electronic map does not exactly correspond to the actual position of the element. The map mapping errors associated with each data point can be used to identify navigable elements.

Likewise, the lack of reliability of the location data may result in incorrectly long elapsed times being determined, for example, in which case some location data relating to devices passing along the element are missing, And so on. Likewise, if a density lower than the expected probe device density is present in the relevant time zone, that is, less vehicles than the anticipated vehicles passing along an element, the device for providing position data for use in the methods of the present invention If so, the expected interval may be inappropriately small, so that the difference between the elapsed time and the expected interval can be considered to be significantly different, resulting in one element being incorrectly identified as potentially closed do. Alternatively or additionally, an assurance that the navigable element is potentially closed can be performed using other data sources that can ensure the presence of the closure or otherwise ensure the presence of closure. For example, traffic messages provided by a third party may indicate that the element is closed.

Such confirmation may consequently take into account one or more of the quality of the digital map data representing the navigable element, the third party data relating to the closure of the navigable elements of the road network, the accuracy of the position data used, and any combination thereof .

Preferably, the method includes identifying each of the identified navigable candidate elements and identifying a candidate element subset that can be identified as closed.

According to any of the embodiments or embodiments of the present invention, including the determination of the closure of the navigable element, once a determination is made that there is a closure that affects the navigable element and is identified in the preferred embodiments , Such information may be used in various ways. In some embodiments, the method may further comprise, for example, in association with one or more navigable segments of the digital map representing the navigable element, data representing the navigable element or each navigable element, ≪ / RTI > associating data indicative of the presence of an identified closure. Thus, the method may preferably include storing data indicative of the presence of said (preferably identified) occlusion relative to data indicative of said navigable element or each navigable element. The method may include using determined data indicative of closure in calculating a route and / or in providing traffic information to, for example, devices associated with vehicles. The method may include providing information indicative of the determined (preferably identified) closure to a third party provider, e.g., a traffic information provider.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, navigable elements that are determined to be closed may be represented by portions of navigable segments or portions of multiple navigable segments of the digital map. Therefore, in various embodiments, the method includes determining locations of the determined start and end of the road closure by referring to locations along the navigable segments of the digital map. This determined navigatable stretch, which may include some or portions of one or more navigable segments, may be encoded in any suitable form by being encoded using any suitable positional reference techniques, such as, for example, OpenLR or AGORA-C. Devices and / or third parties.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, navigable elements as referred to herein are elements for a given direction of travel. Therefore, the determined closure is a closure that affects at least one running direction.

As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the methods according to the present invention may be implemented at least in part using software. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, in additional embodiments, the invention extends to a computer program product comprising computer-readable instructions configured to perform any or all of the methods described herein when executed through suitable data processing means . The present invention also extends to computer software carriers including such software. Such a software carrier may be a physical (or non-transient) storage medium and may be a signal, such as an electronic signal through a wire, an optical signal, or a wireless signal, such as a satellite.

The present invention is not limited by any of the additional embodiments or embodiments of the present invention, as long as there is no inconsistency between any of the additional embodiments or embodiments of the present invention and other embodiments or embodiments of the present invention May include any of the features described with reference to other embodiments or embodiments of the invention.

The term "elapsed time ", unless explicitly referred to herein, refers to the time when an instrument is last detected on the navigable element in accordance with the position data, And the time elapsed since it was made. The term predicted time interval refers to the (expected) time interval between consecutive devices detected on the navigable element. The devices are probe devices. References to the elapsed time or expected time interval may be replaced with reference to data indicating " related parameters " unless explicitly mentioned.

Any reference to comparing one item to another item may include comparing an item to the remaining items and comparing any item to the remaining items in any manner.

It should be noted that the phrase "associated with" for one or more segments or elements should not be construed as requiring any particular limitation on data storage locations. Such a statement merely requires that the features are identifiably related to an element. The association can thus be achieved, for example, by reference to a side file potentially located on the remote server.

The advantages of the embodiments are described below and more specific details and features of each of the embodiments are defined in the appended dependent claims and any other part of the following detailed description.

Various embodiments of the teachings of the present invention, and arrangements embodying such teachings, will now be described by way of representative examples with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a flow chart illustrating steps of a method for detecting the closure of a road element in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 2 is a diagram showing a digital map showing the determined road closure. Fig.

The present invention relates to a method and system for determining the closure of a road element of a road network of road elements in at least preferred embodiments. Accurate determination of the presence of road closures is important in navigation systems or just as additional driving information to drivers. Road closure will affect possible routes between the source and destination, requiring alternative routes near the closure element to be used. In practice, the presence of road closures affects road networks comparable to infinitely severe traffic congestion. Whether the route is calculated in advance or the route is not calculated in advance, it is important for users of the navigation system to be informed of the road closures so that users of the navigation system can take other routes if necessary. The present invention provides a method for more reliable and automatic detection of occlusions.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of Fig. The method typified by Figure 1 is realized in a real-time system using GPS probe data available for real-time position data, e.g., analysis within a short time period, e.g., three minutes. The probe data is vehicle probe data received from devices associated with vehicles having a position corresponding to the location of the vehicle, e.g., GPS devices. The probe data may alternatively be referred to as "positional data. &Quot; The probe or position data is associated with temporal data. The probe data may be used to obtain probe traces related to the driving of probe vehicles along specific road elements in the road network. The location data may be matched with road segments of the digital map representing the road network of road elements.

The steps of the method will be described with reference to determining that certain road elements are closed. The steps described below will be performed for each road element being tested.

The road element is associated with data representing one or more predicted time intervals, the time interval being the expected time interval between consecutive devices detected on the road element. A plurality of expected time intervals may be stored for each predetermined time period and / or predetermined weather conditions, respectively. For example, the expected time intervals may be provided during the peak time period and not during the peak time period, and may be provided for a corresponding time period, such as a 10 minute interval on certain days of the week, and so on. The number of expected time intervals to be obtained may be selected to provide a balance between considerations of considerable traffic frequency variations along road elements for a particular day and / or week as needed, and avoidance of the need to perform excessive data storage or throughput . In other embodiments, differences in traffic density over a particular date can be considered by adjusting the expected time interval value based on the number of coexisting probe devices in the geographic area in which the location data is being received. Thus, the expected time interval will decrease in peak time zones, but the expected time interval will increase during non-peak time zones such as night, weekend and bank holidays.

The predicted time interval data may be based on historical location data related to the movement of devices associated with vehicles along the road element in the relevant time period to which the road element is applied, i. E., Historical vehicle probe data have. The time intervals between successive probe vehicles detected on the road element in accordance with the historical probe data can be determined for the number of consecutive probe vehicle pairs in a time period of interest. This can be done by matching the location probe data with the road segments of the digital map representing the road elements of the entity plane. The mean time interval is then obtained and can be used as the expected time interval during such time period. In obtaining the expected time intervals for the road element using the historical vehicle probe data, it may be possible to use relatively recent history data to ensure that the determined estimated time intervals provide a reasonable reflection of the time intervals that can be expected at the current time Should be used. Thus, at peak hours, considerably less time intervals will be expected than during night, weekend, or holiday periods. It is expected that the road segment of the digital map representing the road element may be associated with data representing each expected time interval. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the expected time interval is related to the expected time interval between the appearance of successive probe vehicles on the road element rather than any vehicle. Only a small number of vehicles passing along the road element can be expected to be probe vehicles, which are generally probe vehicles, that is, probe vehicles with which the devices used in accordance with the present invention can transmit their location along with the timing information . Thus, the expected time interval would be typically considerably greater than the time interval between any successive vehicles passing along the road element. The expected time interval between probe vehicles determines the expected time interval between any vehicles detected on the element and then adjusts these values to account for the percentage of vehicles passing along the element that can be expected to be probe vehicles ≪ / RTI >

According to step 1 of the method, the server obtains real-time position data related to the movement of the devices with respect to time along the road element of interest. The server may receive real-time data directly from the devices in the road network and may obtain such data from, for example, another server in communication with the devices. The server is configured to monitor the elapsed time since the last probe device was detected as being on the road element. For example, the elapsed time may be measured from the appearance of a particular probe vehicle on the road element. The elapsed time may be reset once the next probe vehicle is detected to be on the road element. This process can be performed by matching the real-time position data with the road segments of the digital map representing the road network, and by considering the elapsed time between the appearance of successive probe vehicles on the road segment.

As noted above, the road element is associated with one or more estimated time intervals, which are estimated time intervals between successive devices being detected on the road element. Which are associated with one or more road segments of the digital map representing the road element. In step 2, the server compares the elapsed time determined for the road element and the applicable estimated time interval. The applicable expected time interval is, for example, the time interval corresponding to the current time and conditions for a time slot corresponding to a particular day of the week.

The server determines whether the elapsed time for the road element exceeds the applicable time interval for the road element or exceeds the applicable expected time interval by a predetermined amount. The amount by which the elapsed time must exceed the applicable expected time interval can be set as needed and reduces the likelihood that will determine a positive error for closure, Should be chosen to result in the identification of Generally, the amount should be such that the elapsed time exceeds the applicable expected time interval by a statistically significant amount.

If the server determines that the elapsed time for the road element exceeds the applicable expected time interval for the road element, the road element is considered to be potentially closed and the potentially closed candidate element - Step 3. If the elapsed time does not significantly exceed the applicable expected time interval for the road element, it is assumed that the road element is still open.

The server performs steps 1, 2 and 3 with respect to a plurality of road elements of the road network. For example, such a process may be performed in connection with all of the available road elements with suitable real-time probe data as the server monitors the elapsed time since the last detection of the probe device on the element for each element . The server is expected to be configured to automatically detect when the elapsed time for a particular element in the road network exceeds a threshold based on the applicable expected time interval. At this time, the element can be identified as a candidate closure element. This process can be performed by the server by applying filters appropriate to the real-time probe data associated with the road network. When a potentially closed candidate element is identified, the server generates a message identifying the element as a closing candidate.

Prior to assuming that the candidate road element is closed for any purpose requiring the closure data, the candidate road elements are added with a subset of elements that can be considered to be closed with high reliability, i.e., There will be several factors that may indicate that the road element detected as a candidate closure element is not actually closed. Such factors may be those factors that may result in an incorrectly elapsed time after being detected in the road element for which the last device is determined. One factor that can have this effect is the map mapping error. In determining the elapsed time since the last device was detected on the road element, the server performs map matching of the road segments of the digital map and the vehicle probe data. As is known in the art, this involves attempting to match the position along the road segment of the map with the respective received position from the device. It may be possible to match the segment and the position if the received position does not correspond to the position along that segment, in which case the observed position according to the data and the observed position according to the data are matched The received position is different from the position of the segment by a threshold less than the threshold value that allows the received position to match the segment due to a suitable map mapping error indicating the difference between the positions on the map. However, in some cases it is not possible to match the received position with the position along the road segment of the digital map within at least the allowable map mapping error for the system. This means that the course of the actual life road element is substantially different from the course of the road segment of the digital map intended to represent the course of the actual life road element, for example, due to the course change of the road element not reflected in the map data, As shown in FIG.

There is a possibility that position data associated with probe devices that have not traveled along the road element of the actual surface may not match the road segment representing the road element in the presence of a significant map mapping error with respect to the position of the probe device. In other words, visits to road elements by some devices may not be detected. This may result in an error in the elapsed time since the last detection of the probe device in the road element, and potentially causing one element to be misidentified as being closed.

Another factor that may result in incorrect identification of road elements as being closed is the accuracy of the probe data itself.

Thus, the verification process preferably takes into account one or both of the quality of the digital map data used to match the probe data with the road segments in the road network, and / or the accuracy of the probe data. Alternatively or additionally, the validation process may include using one or more other data sources to verify that one element is closed or otherwise closed. For example, third party data identifying road closures in the road network may be used. If a road element is reported as being closed in accordance with such data, this may increase confidence that the element is actually closed. Other data sources may be data that provides an indication that one element has been traversed recently, as opposed to considering vehicle probe data using, for example, fixed traffic sensors, and the like.

The result of the validation process will be a subset of more limited road elements that can be assumed to be closed. Data representing road elements whose closure has been confirmed can be used as needed. For example, the data may be transmitted to another server or directly to navigation devices or ADAS systems associated with vehicles for use in a route selection scheme, for example. The data may be partially provided as a traffic update transmission. Accordingly, the server stores the data, generates a message indicating the data, and / or distributes the data for use by navigation devices or ADAS systems associated with vehicles, or distributes the data to another server And so on.

2 shows a visualization 10 of a road network geographical area generated using data from a digital map representing a road network. The road stretch 12 has been identified as closed by the completion of the method shown in Fig. The message 14 associated with the determined road closure includes an internal identifier; (E.g., for a digital map); The length of the road stretch determined to be closed; An event type identifier (in this case, the streets of the road are identified as closed); And a start time (indicating when the stretch is determined to be closed first).

Finally, it should be noted that while the appended claims illustrate certain combinations of features described herein, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the specific combinations of the claims below, The combination is expanded to include any combination of features or embodiments disclosed herein whether or not it is specifically enumerated in the appended claims.

Claims (12)

CLAIMS 1. A method for detecting closure of navigable elements forming part of a road network of navigable elements within a geographic area,
The method comprises:
Obtaining positional data related to movement of a plurality of devices along the navigable element with respect to time;
Determining a time that has elapsed since one of the devices was last detected on the navigable element using the position data;
Comparing the determined elapsed time with an expected time interval between consecutive devices detected on the navigable element; And
Identifying the navigable element as potentially closed when the determined elapsed time exceeds the expected time interval;
Wherein the method comprises the steps of: The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the acquired position data includes real-time position data,
A method for detecting closure of an navigable element,
Determining the elapsed time since one device was last detected in the navigable element using the real-time position data;
Wherein the method comprises the steps of: 3. The method according to claim 1 or 2,
Wherein the plurality of devices are devices associated with the vehicles. 4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
Wherein the expected time interval is based on hysteresis position data related to movement of instruments along the navigable element with respect to time. 5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
Wherein the expected time interval is time dependent. 6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
Wherein the expected time interval is an average time interval based on time intervals between a plurality of different successive device sets detected in the navigable element at a predetermined time period. 7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6,
Wherein the expected time interval is scaled depending on the number of devices traversing the road network of navigable elements at a predetermined time at which position data is acquired. 8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7,
Wherein the navigable element identified as potentially closed provides a navigable candidate element that is closed,
A method for detecting closure of an navigable element,
Identifying the closed candidate navigable elements and identifying a subset of the candidate elements that may be identified as closed;
≪ / RTI > The method of claim 1 further comprising: 9. The method of claim 8,
The confirmation comprising: a quality of digital map data representing the navigable element; Quality of the location data; And third party data related to closing of the navigable elements of the road network; / RTI > of at least one of the at least one of the at least two of the at least two elements. 10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9,
A method for detecting closure of an navigable element,
Associating data indicative of an identified and optionally identified closure with data indicative of the navigable element;
≪ / RTI > The method of claim 1 further comprising: A system, preferably a server, for detecting the closure of navigable elements forming part of a road network of navigable elements within a geographic area,
The system comprises:
Means for obtaining position data related to movement of a plurality of devices along the navigable element with respect to time;
Means for determining a time that has elapsed since one of the devices was last detected on the navigable element using the position data;
Means for comparing the determined elapsed time with an expected time interval between consecutive devices detected on the navigable element; And
Means for identifying the navigable element as potentially closed when the determined elapsed time exceeds the expected time interval;
Gt; wherein the system is operable to detect the closing of the navigable element. A computer program product comprising computer readable instructions executable to perform a method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, optionally recorded on a non-transient computer readable medium.

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